Reloading Primers for Rifles, Pistol and Shotguns

About primers for reloaders. For metallic cartridges there are basically two physical sizes, small and large. Pistol and rifle primers have the same physical dimensions but differ in the pressure they can handle and the intensity of the flame. Standard pistol primer have a thinner cup and are designed for pressures normally up to around 20,000 CPU. Magnum pistol primers good to around 40,000 CPU. Standard rifle primers work in the 50,000 CPU range while Magnum rifle primers can go as high as 65,000 CPU. The higher the pressure that a primer is designed for requires a thicker and harder primer cup. Therefore if you use rifle primers in some pistols, you may have trouble with light fire pin strikes and a failure to fire. If you were to use to a standard pistol primer in a full power rifle cartridge, you stand a chance of a primer rupturing or blowing. This can be dangerous and in some guns cause you to lose an eye. In America and most commercial ammunition available in America, we use Boxer type primers that were invented in Europe. Many foreign militaries and European ammunition manufactures use Berdan primers which were invented in America, For all practical purposes, Berdan primed brass is not reloadable. At least not worth the effort. Match and Bench rest primers are simply tighter tolerance of the components. Federal makes an especially hot long duration primer #215 which should be used in very large cases. It was designed for the .460 Weatherby. The primer mixtures used today normally contain a lead compound primary explosive with other fuels and oxidizers and are non-corrosive. US military primers also contain a secondary high explosive, powdered aluminum as the fuel for a hotter flame but the by product is Aluminum Oxide which is very abrasive and powdered glass to increase sensitivity and is also abrasive. Military primers also have harder and thicker cups to prevent slam fires in machine guns and semi autos. With shotgun primers, for many years there were two standard sizes, a Winchester 209 and a Remington 97. The Winchester 209 finally became the standard size for most shot shells including Remington.

Reloading powder and primers can only be sold to persons 21 years old or older. We can only ship by UPS ground to the lower 48 States. We can only ship a maximum of 100 lbs. in one order. There is a UPS Hazmat fee of $17.95 for each 50 lbs. Powder and primer may be mixed in the same order with just one hazmat fee. Due to the high demand and the limited amount we can ship in one day, at times there can be a delay in shipping up to one week.